The government has undertaken a Tk 332 million project to fix appropriate strategy for planned construction of both government and private infrastructures in Dhaka city over the next 20 years.
The project titled 'City Region Development' will help set strategy for new project 'Dhaka Structure Plan 2016-2035' and help formulate Dhaka Detailed Area Plan (DAP-2016-2035).
The finance ministry has already issued the 'liquidity certificate' against the necessary fund for the project and also approved the required manpower.
Rajuk chairman Nurul Huda in an inter-ministerial meeting on the project held recently said the aim of the project is to ensure comprehensive and environmentally-safe expansion of Dhaka city through controlled development and planned urbanisation.
The Rajuk chairman said the tenure of the current detailed area plan (DAP) and Dhaka Structure Plan will expire by 2015 for which a new structure plan and a fresh DAP are required for planned expansion of the city.
The Chairman proposed the project management to include some new parameters including earthquake resilience and seismic hazard analysis into the project plan.
"Land sustainability analysis, earthquake resilience, seismic hazard assessment, risk scenario assessment, risk sensitive land use planning, participatory rapid appraisal are the most essential components in an area like Dhaka because it is very earthquake-prone region," Nurul Huda said.
The project Deputy Chief said as the finance ministry has already approved the liquidity certificate of the project, it will not be possible to increase the project cost at this moment.
Sources said a new Detailed Area Plan (DAP) applicable for 2016-35 for the capital city will be prepared covering adjacent areas, including Gazipur, Keraniganj, Savar and Narayanganj.
Urban planners recently urged the political leaders to sit across the table to contribute their thoughts to prepare the plan.
At present, a DAP is in force for the building and land developers but the new plan will be more effective for the future Dhaka city, they said.
The errors and loopholes of the existing DAP are expected to be corrected while preparing the new plan.
Sources said, developers are demanding vertical expansion of Dhaka to accommodate increasing population. But due to the existence of two airports, vertical expansion is restricted in 70 areas of the city.
Thousands of industrial units and other structures have been built on the outskirts of the capital, as in Savar, Ashulia, Turag, Tongi, Demra, Rupganj, Keraniganj and parts of Gazipur and Narayanganj, flouting land use rules.
This happened due mainly to slack monitoring by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), which attributed its failure to do the job properly for lack of manpower.
The capital city's master plan was supposed to be implemented over an area of 1,528 square kilometres with the DAP, which indicates every structure, lake, canal, wetland, retention pond, road, open space and all topographical features, and outlines authorised land use plan.
But the government's compromising stance on enforcing the DAP allows earth filling of reserved wetlands and flood flow zones by powerful real estate developers and illegal building constructions, sources said. The DAP has earmarked one-third of the master plan area as flood flow zones, water retention ponds and water bodies.
The DAP was finalised and published in the official gazette in June 2010, but its implementation was soon made subject to a "final" review by a seven-minister committee in the face of fierce opposition from real estate developers and Dhaka lawmakers.
